I have bought hundreds of plane tickets over the past 27 years and here are some tips on how I have sometimes managed to find really cheap plane tickets to many parts of the globe.

Sign up for newsletters.

Again again at the airport in Istanbul.

One thing that I notice relatively few people do, is sign up for airline newsletters. This is one of the best ways of getting cheap tickets, as the really cheap tickets are never for sale all the time, but only during short sales periods and newsletters will normally tell you when an airline has sale going on and this is where you can grab some cheap tickets. I fly overseas a lot and I have gotten some really cheap deals with major high quality airlines like Emirates, Qatar Airways, Lufthansa, KLM, Turkish Airlines and several others, by being aware on when they put some tickets for sale. I have flown between Copenhagen and East and Southeast Asia several times for less than 400€ for a return ticket with an airline that included checked in bags, free food and free drinks, including alcoholic drinks. Cheap tickets are not confined to budget airlines, but you generally have to know when they put these tickets for sale, so sign up for a few newsletters from airlines you are likely to use and you might just end up getting some real cheap tickets.

Use search engines.

Madeira Airport.

Using flight search engines is another obvious thing to do. Websites like www.skyscanner.orgwww.momondo.com and www.kayak.com are good sites for finding cheap flights for instance. They are especially good if you need to book the flight right here, right now as they can usually find the cheapest available offer right now. But don’t be fooled to think that this will not get cheaper. If what comes out is a little expensive, then try to wait for a couple of days if you can and see if the price drops. Airline tickets go up and down all the time, all depending supply and demand, so the price you see right now, could easily be both higher or lower tomorrow.

Clear your cookies on a regular basis.

Clear your cookies, so you can afford to fly with her.

Most airlines store cookies in your computer and if you check out the price for one flight today without booking and then come back tomorrow and look again, then the price might have gone up, because they have it in your system that you might just book that ticket and then they raise the price. I have still not heard of an airline admitting to this practice, but most do it no matter what they say. Those who keep saying they don’t are most likely lying, cause I have seen this happen so many times. So clear your cookies on a regular basis when looking for cheap tickets.

Budget airlines.

Female pilot on Air Asia.

You should always check out what budget airlines fly the route you are planning to fly and see what they have to offer. And remember that budget airlines are not just the big famous airlines like Southwest, Spirit, Easyjet, Ryanair and Air Asia. You have dozens of budget airlines around the world who sell cheap tickets and it’s worth checking them out. At the end of this article, I will post links to a bunch of them.

But don’t forget about traditional airlines.

Air Serbia is often suprisingly cheap.

Many people assume that budget airlines are always the cheapest, but this is not always the case. Because the budget airlines came and kicked in the door a few years ago, the traditional airlines have been forced to drop their prices if they want to stay in business and because of that you can often find very cheap prices with the traditional airlines and don’t forget that these airlines often include checked in luggage, free food, free drinks and so on. This is especially true on overseas flights.

Getting cheap tickets last minute.

Back in the old days, it was often cheap to fly standby last minute. This is almost never the case anymore as the airlines have found out that the people who fly last minute are often in a hurry and must travel, because they are on business, on the way to a funeral or something else that is so important that they do not have time to wait for a cheap price. This is especially true among budget airlines, who tend to be super expensive last minute, cause this is one of the ways they can compensate for selling some of the tickets real cheap. What tend to be the only real cheap option if you fly last minute is to fly with charter airlines. These airlines generally cater only to holiday makers and it’s often a travel agency that has bought all the seats on the plane and they are not likely to have any business people coming last minute, so you can often fly very cheap with them last minute. Their flights tend to be to and from popular resort destinations, but you can sometimes get some really good deals there, one or two days before departure. These tickets should be booked online in order to get the best fare, on the website of the travel agency that sells them. Be ware that search engines almost never notice these flight as the price of those tickets often change several times a day, just before departure.

On my way to Latvia for little money.

Fly on unpopular dates.

Some dates are so unpopular to fly that prices very often drop on this day. Flying on the 13th of the months can save you quite a lot of money as many people refuse to fly that day. Most airports do not have a gate 13 for the same reason as they do not want people to panic. Flying on christmas eve is another cheap day. While the christmas period tend to be really expensive, then christmas eve tends to be really cheap, so if you do not care about christmas then you can save money there. I have taken several christmas eve flights over the years. And september 11 is also cheap.

Free candy at Changi airport.

A list of budget airlines.

Here is a list of budget airlines, that I have either flown with or dealt with at work ( I work in the travel trade). There are many more budget airlines, but I prefer to just mention those that I have some experience with, as I could easily make mistakes if I just google my info. I prefer that travel advice is given because of personal experience.

Have a nice flight. 🙂

3 Comments

The newsletter tip is great, and something I’ve done to get cheapish flights (from Canada it’s pretty pricey to fly anywhere). Also love the tip about flying on the 13th. If peoples’ superstitions means I get a cheaper flight then I’ll take it. 🙂